1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to an input device for a portable terminal. More particularly, it relates to a hand held input device for inputting information on a portable terminal touch screen, and having a microphone and speaker for short range communication with the portable terminal in a wireless headset function.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a portable terminal refers to a hand held electronic device capable of transmitting and/or receiving an information or communication signal. Examples of portable terminals include smart phones, tablet PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), notebook computers, and so forth. A multifunction portable terminal may have functionality including mobile communications, electronic note taking, internet connection, a multimedia function, etc.
As portable terminals mainly used for mobile communications are becoming generalized and multimedia services using portable terminals are being commercialized, a trend has emerged in which various input devices and touchscreen displays have increased in size to improve the user experience. The desire continues, however, to design light weight and thin portable terminals.
Input devices for inputting information through touch screens, such as stylus pens, are useful in some portable terminals. When the tip of an input device (“manipulation member”) contacts a touch screen, the portable terminal is driven or information desired by a user is input. Recent portable terminals employ customized pen-like input devices for inputting a user's handwritten notes, where the portable terminal recognizes and organizes the notes and so forth.
A tradeoff exists between the size of a display and convenience in use as a hand held phone, e.g., cell phone. For example, by using a portable terminal such as a tablet PC, a user can easily use a multimedia function while carrying the portable terminal, but it is becoming inconvenient to perform a voice communication due to a large size thereof. Accordingly, wireless headsets, for example, through Bluetooth based on wireless near field communications are becoming widely used so that a voice communication function of a portable terminal can be easily implemented. However, a drawback of the wireless headset is that it needs to be carried separately, and coupled with a larger portable terminal to carry, the user's convenience is compromised.
To overcome the disadvantages of the wireless headset, efforts to integrate a pen-like input device (a “pen”, for brevity) and a wireless headset are being made. With this approach, a microphone, a speaker, and short range communication electronics are each integrated within the pen. A short range communication protocol, e.g., Bluetooth, is established between the pen and the portable terminal. Thus the user is able to mount the pen to a shirt pocket or the like and communicate in a phone call using the portable terminal as a base. That is, the pen functions as a substitute for a wireless headset.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an input device of a portable terminal (i.e., a pen) 10 capable of implementing both an input and a communication according to the related art. FIG. 2A is a sectional view of the input device 10 taken along line A-A′ of FIG. 1. FIG. 2B is a functional block of the input device 10 in a communication system. Referring to FIGS. 1, 2A and 2B, the input device 10 includes a housing 11 and an input module 12 which is composed of a body 12b (shown schematically in FIG. 2B) within the housing and a tip 12a extending from the housing 11. The tip 12a allows a user to input touch commands to a touch panel (not illustrated) of a portable terminal 20. A transmitting/receiving (T/R) module 13 including an antenna 17 is disposed within the housing 11 to implement short range communications (e.g. Bluetooth) with portable terminal 20. During a phone call, portable terminal 20 communicates the user's voice signals received by microphone 14 and processed and transmitted by T/R module 13 to a base station 30 communicatively connected to a third party (not shown). Voice signals transmitted by the third party are routed in the opposite direction, received, processed and routed by T/R module 13 as sound signals to a speaker 15 for output. In this case although the speaker and the speaker hole are not specifically shown, in a broad sense, the speaker is configuration of one of the speaker hole, in a narrow sense, the speaker is configured to generate sound in one configuration of the T/R module, and the speaker hole is configured to be connected to the speaker to be discharged to the outside the sound generated from the speaker.
The input module 12 protrudes to a lower side of the housing 11 and is mounted to an inner portion of the housing 11 with respect to the tip 12a (“manipulation member”) contacting the touch panel. The T/R module 13 is located just above the input module 12 within housing 11. A microphone hole 11a is formed in the housing 11 to provide an input air conduit for the user's voice sounds to travel and be picked up by the microphone 14. The microphone hole 11a is formed at a center region of the housing, close to a location where the T/R module 13 is mounted. In detail, the microphone hole 11a is formed on the housing 11 close to a location where the input module 12 faces the T/R module 13 The speaker 15 is provided at an upper end of the housing 11.
The pen-like input device 10 has a size similar to that of a pen which can be gripped by a user. The input module 12 is disposed on a “near end” of the pen 10 while the T/R module 13 extends towards the opposite, “far end” of the pen. Accordingly, the microphone hole 11a and the speaker 15 are formed fairly close to each other, such that sounds output by speaker 15 are disadvantageously introduced through the microphone hole 11a. 
As the microphone hole 11a is formed in a central region of the pen 10, a user's hand may grip the pen 10 at the location of the microphone hole 11a during a phone call, thereby blocking the hole and attenuating sound waves traveling towards the microphone 14. Accordingly, the user's voice sounds as received by the microphone are attenuated and performance of the microphone 14 is degraded. Further, when the pen 10 is held to the user's head during use, with the speaker 15 adjacent the user's ear, the user's cheek may contact and block the microphone hole 11a. The user's voice incident upon the microphone 14 may be attenuated in this condition also, thereby diminishing performance.